The Start of Opara
by POLLOLL0
Summary: To stop the Hive Warpriest, Telleth'uul, Kyer and Lias must recruit three other Guardians into their fire team: Winter, Vossius-8, and Amalia. Each of these Guardians have mastered abilities which Kyer's fire team needs to defeat the Warpriest. The Start of Opara is the first book in a series of stories revolving around three Guardians and their adventures.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter 1: The Warlock_

Winter landed at the Frontier with two other Guardians at her side. She was unbelievably nervous, standing with her team as they waited for the Redjack to give the starting signal.

_You've got this, Winnie. _She pumped herself up in her thoughts. _I'm going to win. I'm going to-_

The siren blared and her heart skipped a beat.

_Win!_

* * *

"So," the hulking Titan walked into the bar behind his Hunter companion, "why'd you want me to come with you?"

They sat at a booth where they had a good view of the Crucible match about to start on the screen. "Because, Lias, I just found someone we definitely need to kill Telleth'uul." The Hunter watched eagerly as the fight was about to begin.

"Who is it?"

The Hunter smirked and pointed at the Warlock on screen. "Her."

The Titan saw a petite girl with brown skin and dark brown hair cut just above her shoulders. She wore a short blue robe with a thin belt under her breasts, spreading that underpart of the coat outwards slightly. The bond on her arm had a holographic butterfly glowing. Her helmet was cupped under her left arm and she held an SMG in her right hand. The Warlock had a worried expression on her face.

The camera angle changed from her team to the other. The Titan then turned to his friend. "What's so amazing about _her_?"

The Hunter looked confident with what he was about to say. "Winter has focused her Light on her Sol abilities. She's able to heal and protect us with barriers or pools of Light. She can even resurrect herself without her Ghost's help. Also, she's got amazing hips."

"Winter…" Lias said her name quietly then came to realize who she was. "I knew she looked familiar. I heard she doesn't have much experience fighting."

"She's only been alive for two years there isn't much experience, yes," the Hunter explained, "but she has amazing healing capabilities and we need that!"

"Eralis can heal too, Kyer." He raised an eyebrow at his Hunter friend.

"Yes, but Eralis isn't as good as she is." Kyer fixed his gaze on the match. He watched as Winter moved gracefully through the field. She would create healing orbs for her team. The Warlock put her hand against her Titan teammates back, strengthening him with her Sol magic. He mowed the enemy down on their first round with his assault rifle.

The second round, she decided to try and get a kill herself. She let her team engage the other three combatants and went for a flank, but she moved too slow. Her team went down quickly without her aid and before she knew it, the zone in the middle turned on and the enemy had captured it.

Each round, until match point, ended with either Winter's team wiping out the enemy or the enemy leaving Winter last and capturing the point.

"She has yet to be killed." Lias muttered.

"Isn't she amazing?" Kyer slammed both his fists on the table.

Lias watched the screen. "That doesn't mean she's good. The enemy knows who the strongest are. They take out her teammates first then wait for the objective to open and cap' it. They've already assessed her skills."

"Don't count her out yet, Lias." Kyer gave his friend a cocky smile. "Something big is gonna happen this last round, I know it."

* * *

"This is it you two." The Titan on Winter's team spoke up. "We _cannot_ lose this."

"Let's try to gather them together and unleash my nova bomb on 'em." The other Warlock on her team said. "One launch from across the field should do the trick if you two are able to group them up."

Winter stayed quiet as her team discussed.

When the time came, the trio were off to complete their plan. It seemed simple: Winter attacked left, the Titan right, and the other Warlock down the middle. What happened next left Winter as the only remaining member on her team.

The enemy Hunter had unleashed his burning golden gun, firing all three shots at the Titan. He went down quick. The other had tried to rush and help revive him, but was sniped by their Titan.

Winter hid for a short time, listening to the footsteps of the enemy Guardians as they passed by her. Her heart raced, when the Titan stopped in front of the small cave she hid in. He stepped close to it and readied his weapon to fire.

_I have to do something! Now! _She shouted internally.

With that, Winter charged the Titan. SMG in one hand and an orange orb of fire in the other. He was caught off guard as the spray from her gun hit him. The Titan had barely enough time to react when the Warlock got close enough to slam the burning orb into his side. The orb exploded on him, killing him instantaneously.

His Warlock teammate came up behind Winter. She fired at him, but the effort was futile as he ran for cover. Winter did the same. She waited a short while, then when a loud -_FWOOM_\- could be heard she peaked from cover. What she saw almost made her piss herself. Three nova bombs all coming towards her.

_I can't freeze up now! _

Winter took this chance to run under the bombs, but they managed to turn over and continue their chase. The Warlock who threw them stood in the open with his arm extended and three fingers pointed at her, he was controlling where they went, so Winter used this to her advantage and ran towards him. He brought his arm across his body to change their course. Instead of firing, Winter just continued running at him. She could hear gunfire from her left and noticed that his Hunter teammate was shooting at her.

She ignored it and pushed on. Just as she reached the Warlock, she grabbed his arm and kept the bombs going in her direction, then grabbed his other hand to keep him from attacking her.

"What are you doing?" He panicked.

"Making sure you take yourself out!" Winter shouted.

The bombs approached, his teammates stopped firing to watch the incredible display of a _kamikaze_. When the bombs had gotten close enough, Winter pushed the Warlock and ran off. She jumped and distorted the gravity around her body causing her to fly through the air. As the bombs hit the enemy, the shockwave flung her against the building in front of her.

From the building, Winter fell on her back, breaking her spine. "I-I can't-" She gasped for air in a panic.

The enemy Hunter walked over and pressed his boot against her stomach. "You sure are hard to kill." He pressed his shotgun to her helmet and fired leaving a mess of blood and gore all around where her face used to be. The Hunter turned and began walking away. He began counting the timer before the match officially ended. "One, two-"

_-FWISH- _

He turned to see the Warlock, burning gold and bright. The Hunter leveled his shotgun, but was too late. Winter kicked the gun out of his hand, twirled to keep her momentum, then slammed a flaming bomb against his face. He screamed in agony as his face melted and he slowly died.

Just as he died, Winter's Sol fire went out. She staggered while breathing heavily. When the sirens blared again she dropped to her hands and knees.

"Congratulations Winter!" the motherly voice of her Ghost came up in her helmet. "You were amazing!"

Winter brought one hand up in a lazily trying to cheer for herself. The Hunter was brought back to life, laying on his back and staring at the sky.

The Warlock stood and walked over to him. "Sorry." She extended her hand down to help him up.

He took it without any complaint. "You should have fought like that all throughout the match."

Winter giggled softly. "I would rather surprise the enemy then give them an idea of who they're up against." Her Ghost appeared in her hand, just then. "Let's go collect our loot Baris."

"I'll call the ship."

* * *

Winter landed at the Tower, tired and constantly touching her face to make sure she still had it. She walked down to Shaxx, who was sitting on his couch reading a book. On what, she was unsure, but it must have been good because he didn't seem to notice the Warlock standing in front of him. When he finally looked up, he had his Ghost summon a weapon for her, a dull red pulse rifle. Then he shouted something about Winter _hiding her fighting spirit behind a wall of quietness_.

Just as she was about to retire to her apartment someone called her name.

"Winter!"

She turned to see two Guardians in regular attire. One was lanky, the other muscular.

"Looks like you've got fans." Baris joked.

"Yes?" she gave them an awkward smile.

The tall, lanky Guardian came over to her with his hand out. "Have you ever heard of Telleth'uul?"

The name made Winter's eyes widen and light up with excitement. "Of course I have!"


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2: The Warlock part 2_

"Telleth'uul," Winter began, "a Hive Warpriest, is on Venus helping in his species crusade against the Light. The reason for being on Venus wasn't known until recently, when _I_ was tasked with going down to his domain and studying whatever I could find. What I found out is that Telleth'uul is using Venus fauna for his own dark purposes. The creature I encountered down there looked like a Venus alitar, it produced the same noises as one, but it had chitinous armor fused into its skin. The usual long snout wasn't there any longer and it looked as if the Hive had cut it out leaving only the back teeth and nostrils exposed. The monster had much longer claws and its back was just-" Winter shuddered and felt like vomiting after remembering the ugly texture on the warped alitar's back, "filled with nasty holes that released some kind of noxious gas. When I found it, the alitar was feeding off of some kind of Light source that Baris could detect.

"I believe Telleth'uul is mutating the creatures of Venus to drain the Light out of us Guardians." She paused trying to confirm her theory. "It would make sense: drain our Light and the last remnants of humanity are practically all gone. He could launch an attack on the City and kill us all."

There was a long moment of silence after Winter finished.

"I can't believe you went down there all on your own." Kyer broke the silence. "We definitely need you for this mission Winter."

She set her jaw in determination. "I don't do much fighting, but if it comes down to having to protect the City from a threat this serious I am _completely_ onboard."

"Good." Kyer said. "With your knowledge on the Hive and the strength of the other two

"With the other two Guardians we'll be recruiting, this should be an easy mission."

Winter smiled at the Hunter. The feeling of being relied on by other Guardians wasn't something she was used to. It was always her and Baris alone, either studying in the library or doing field research while hiding from the Hive. The only time she worked with other Guardians was when Ikora asked her to join a team for a strike mission. Even then, she barely said a word during the mission, the other two Guardians only thanked her for healing them and empowering them throughout the strike. No emotional attachment to them, only praise for her healing. She had to guess that's how many Guardians learned of her healing abilities.

"Well then," she clasped her hands together, "I should get going. There are things I need to get ready for the mission. I'll see you then." The Warlock began gathering her things. "If I'm needed for anything else, just come down to the Tower library, I should be there."

Winter's Ghost took the rest of her books and they left.

Lias looked at Kyer who was poking at a datapad. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, just reading up on our next Guardian." He handed Lias the pad.

There was a massive exo Titan standing in the profile Kyer was reading: Vossius-8, a Titan with hundreds of years of experience. The exo was apart of the Inner Circle: a set of Titans chosen by Zavala to work as his closest allies and complete important tasks for him. He was known around the City to be a powerful Titan who fought an army of Fallen by himself. As Lias read the dossier, he felt as if some of the things were exaggerated. He had apparently destroyed a Fallen ketch and got his fireteam out without any serious injuries.

"You sure we want him on our team?" Lias tossed the datapad on the table in front of him.

"The man has more experience then you, of course we want him."

Lias rolled his eyes and stood up to walk for the door, when he noticed Kyer was still seated, he gave his friend a confused look. "Aren't you coming?"

"Right, about that," Kyer began to twiddle his thumbs, "I think you should take Winter with you, so you can get a better read on her."

Lias sighed heavily. "_A better read?_" He repeated.

"Yeah," Kyer shrugged. "You get to know her and tell us how she is."

"Why don't you do it?"

Kyer stretched his arms back and legs forward then put himself in a relaxed position. "Because I have better things to do." He shut his eyes. Lias shook his head and walked out of the apartment. He stepped out the building and started his walk to the Tower, Lias hoped he'd find Winter before getting there. His eyes shifted through the crowds of people searching for the Warlock.

With all of his searching, Lias began giving up. "I really don't want to meet up with her at the library." He muttered. With that, as if the Traveller had heard him, he bumped into Winter.

"Hey, watch-" She did a double take, "Lias! I am so sorry!"

"I should be sorry." He picked up the book she dropped and read the title. "So you like the Hive, healing fellow Guardians, and… romance stories."

She snatched the book. "I-I'm only reading this because I have nothing else to read at the moment."

The flustered look on her face was admittedly cute. Lias gave her a warm chuckle. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"So where are you going?" Winter did her best to move the conversation on.

"I actually came looking for you. Kyer wanted me to meet up with you, so I can get _a better read_ on you." Lias admitted. "He also wanted you to come recruit our next Guardian, if you can that is."

Winter paused for a moment. _I have nothing to do at the moment, but do I really want to hang out with him? _She began studying Lias. He was tall and muscular with pale skin and auburn hair. She could see the muscular definition in his sleeves and chest, it was definitely nice to look at. _I think I'll hang around for a short time. _

"Sure I can go with you." She smiled at him. "And on the way there we can learn about each other."

"Let's get going then." Lias and Winter started there walk to the Tower.

* * *

"So you died three years ago," Lias began putting Winter's timeline together, "then was revived two years ago and that's how you know so much about yourself?"

Winter nodded.

"Since your family has shown you things from your past, do you just instantly remember?" He asked.

"No, but the things they've talked about have felt familiar." Winter explained. "Like when my little brother told me that I worked under a Warlock as his scholar apprentice there was a feeling of familiarity. When I was shown a picture of him, I felt as if I knew him. Then when I met up with him, I knew his name without ever being told."

Lias had to admit he was a little jealous of her. Being able to remember was something he wished he could do, even though Guardians were told to just forget trying to find out about their past. Too bad he was reborn a couple hundred years ago, when the City was still a small village of huts. When he asked about his past and finding a way to remember it, his Ghost told him that whoever was in his family was long gone and to just follow the Traveller. Lias hated the response.

"Hey Lias," Winter's soft voice took him out of his feelings, "who are we looking for?"

"An exo Guardian named, Vossius-8."

"Vossius-8!" Winter scowled.

"You got a problem with him?" Lias asked.

"He was the first person to ever kill me. And I know how dumb that sounds as a Guardian, but he did it in such a painful way." She crossed her arms while remembering her first death ever. "I pissed him off during my first Crucible match with my healing, so he decided to blow my leg off with a tripmine then he sniped one of my hands, and as if that wasn't enough, he stomped me out on the ground until the bones in my chest were practically dust."

Lias stared down at the angry Warlock as they walked together. She was seething with rage just from the memory. "Hey, you had to die at some point, right?"

"I know," Winter's scowl disappeared, but her eyebrows stayed furrowed, "that's why I decided to participate in a Crucible match that day, but did he have to be so brutal? One good snipe to the head could have done it."

Lias laughed softly. "It seems that a majority of Guardians first death is the most brutal, at least from what I've heard."

Winter had a rueful expression on her face from then on.

"So what makes you so interested in the Hive?" Lias decided to keep a conversation going with her.

"Everything about them!" He noticed her eyes lit up like before. "Their history is so interesting, although I haven't found enough information to give me a good idea from where they originated from, but what I have learned is that the Hive all work under a god named Crota. From what I have noticed in Hive temples, the god lives here in our system."

"What? Where?"

"How could you possibly not know?" She put a hand on her hip. "Have you seen that giant hole in the ground on the Moon?"

"I always thought the Hive just burrowed there to create more temple space." He scratched his head like a child.

"He's down there, I bet all my glimmer on it."

"If you say so _Hive expert_."

From there the conversation seemed to stop.

* * *

When they finally arrived at the Tower Lias put on his heavy Titan armor and the two went down to see the Titan Vanguard.

Zavala stood by the window in the back of the Vanguard Hall, reading from a datapad on one of his Titan's mission reports. Cayde sat on the table with his legs crossed in front of Ikora, who was leaned over a book, talking her ear off about some mission he had gone on recently with two _Hunter pals_ of his. Winter and Lias walked around the main section where the two Vanguard lounged.

"Lias." Zavala turned to greet the Titan, "I see you have a new addition to your team." He gestured to the Warlock.

Lias gave him a salute then introduced his Warlock companion. "This is Winter, Commander, she's been recruited for our raid on Telleth'uul."

"I know who she is. We sent her down to Venus to see what she can tell us about Telleth'uul and what he is doing. Didn't you receive her report?"

Lias shook his head and looked at Winter with a puzzled expression. "Was I supposed to get the information earlier?"

"Yes, I asked Cayde to give Kyer the report." Zavala explained. "That's the last time I will ever give Cayde any type of task." He grumbled. "Anyhow, if you have her with you then I can only assume she's given you all of the details she's gathered?"

Lias nodded.

"Good." Zavala smiled at her. "So what do you need now?"

"Do you know where Vossius-8 might be?" Lias asked while handing the Vanguard the datapad. "I assume you might know since he works in the Inner Circle."

"Vossius is apart of the Inner Circle?" Winter's eyebrows raised. "I thought the Titan's who were in it were supposed to be sane and not psychos?"

Zavala gave her a look of _I want to ask what you mean,_ but decided to just ignore it. "Yes, Vossius works in the Inner Circle. He should be in the _last_ place I sent him." He turned to look out the window again, "He hasn't reported in since, but that doesn't worry me. If you want to find him head over to these coordinates in London." Zavala handed him a datapad. "We have a base of operations set up. You could find him there, and if you don't then he's possibly out on a task."

"Thank you, Commander." Lias turned on his heel and walked out the Hall with Winter trotting up behind him.

"So do you plan for me to go with you or would you rather I stay?" Winter asked as they walked up the large staircase.

"That's up to you." Lias answered. "Personally, I'd like for you to come, so I can see you out on the field, but if you don't want to I won't force you."

Winter took some time to think.

"Meet me in the Hangar if you want to come." Lias continued his path.

The Warlock sighed. _On one hand, I'm tired, but on the other… _Winter watched Lias walk away. Her eyes drifted down towards his rear, which looked _especially_ defined in his armored pants. A smile crept onto her lips. _I think I'll go. _


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3: The Titan_

Two ships flew over Old London, soaring over the old city. Winter looked out of her window admiring the crumbling architecture. Some buildings stood half collapsed with Fallen flags visible on them, others were broken down completely, and very few stood unscathed.

"I bet London looked amazing during the Golden Age." Winter continued to marvel.

"From what information I can gather, London, during the Golden Age, was a well known site for tourism." Baris spoke now. "Many people came to look at the Big Ben?"

"The Big Ben?"

"Were far from it now, but it was apparently a large clocktower?" Baris felt a little bit confused. "Why would anyone care to come see a clocktower? I'm sure you could see them anywhere else."

"Maybe this one was special?" Winter giggled.

"I assume so." She answered.

As they continued to admire the city a wire rifle shot hit the bottom of Winter's ship. The energy bullet managed to strike close to the power core of her ship, causing it to power down. The ship began to glide through the air with ease until more Fallen began shooting at her ship. Bits and pieces began breaking off.

"I'm going to transmat us out!" Baris yelled. "Be prepared!"

Winter grabbed her new pulse rifle and unbuckled herself from her seat. Blue-white energy surrounded her body and in a flash she was outside, falling to her death. She concentrated on how she would descend rather then what would happen if she fell too fast and began gliding to a nearby building.

The Warlock fell onto the roof of a building with a loud _thud_. She scanned her surroundings and noticed Lias' ship flying down fast. The massive Titan transmatted out and grabbed her by the arm to pull her onto her feet.

"Get ready." He said removing his gun off of its magnetized position. Lias jumped into a massive hole in the building and began firing at Fallen. Before jumping down to help, Winter made sure nothing was broken then, with a graceful jump, joined the fight.

The room they fought in was cramped with rusted file cabinets toppled over and old desks positioned in the most inconvenient way possible. The Fallen had the upper hand due to their sly nature and swift movements. They could snake their way under tables and stab at the Guardians feet or overwhelm due to having more numbers.

Lias fired his assault rifle and popped a Dreg's head as it rushed them from the front, white ether fizzing up into the air. He looked up and fired at another Dreg, who was going to attack with a pounce. The spray from his gun caused the Dreg to fall over the file cabinet it stood on. The Titan did his best to squirm between two file cabinets to escape the cramped space he was in, but was stabbed by a Vandal's sword. Luckily, Winter fired three times at the Vandal, cutting through its armor, killing it.

Lias proceeded to push through the cabinets. Winter passed through with ease. She pressed her hand against the stab wound and started healing the Titan. Lias touched a gap that left his skin exposed where she had just healed.

"Your Ghost will fix the broken armor." She said passing by him and walking out the door.

In the hallway, more Fallen attacked. This time they took a ranged approached. Winter and Lias quickly dispatched two Dregs. A Vandal, which had been trying to snipe them, lost his head when he peaked around the corridor. Multiple Fallen turned the corner in an angry rush trying to kill the Guardians. With her left hand, Winter created a solar bomb and tossed it in the middle of the arachnid aliens, burning their armor and exoskeletons and in the end disintegrating them.

Lias took point now as he led the Warlock through the building. "For someone who says they don't have much fighting experience you seem to be able to handle yourself pretty well in a fight." There was suspicion in his voice.

"It's not hard to know when throwing a solar bomb is a good idea or not." She shrugged. "I also have experience in the Crucible, so I guess that helps me stay knowledgeable on what to do too."

"I-" The Titan was interrupted by Winter's shriek. He turned just in time to feel the hilt of a Fallen sword hit his head. Lias fell to the floor on his hands and knees, disoriented from the blow. Another Captain stepped onto his back to keep him from getting back up. He couldn't see Winter, but he could hear her angrily struggling in a fight with one of the Captains.

The Captain that had attacked Winter had her held against his chest with a sword to her throat.

"Let go of me you four-armed freak!" She kicked her legs around violently. The one stepping on his back spoke in its native tongue and started laughing as it watched Winter struggle. "Go ahead and kill me! You'll regret it!"

The Captain holding her laughed and slit her throat. Blood started gushing from her throat. The Captain let her go and kicked her down to the ground. Lias' heart sunk when he saw Winter's dying body fall to the ground with blood spouting out of her neck. Her body twitched for a short period then stopped, lying still on the cold, hard ground. Seeing her on the ground dead made Lias sick, even if they were Guardians it was still horrible to see someone die so painfully and slowly.

For a short time, Lias waited on the ground staring at Winter's dead body then in a flash Winter set ablaze and was back alive. She scrambled from the ground and ran down the hall as fast as she could. Both Captains were left in surprise as the Warlock escaped. Lias took this moment to turn his body with all of his force and cause the Captain who had a foot on him to stumble and hit the wall. Lias got up and punched an Arc charged fist into the Captain, burning a hole into the alien's stomach. The other turned just in time to meet Lias' fist then a spray of bullets from his gun. Lias cracked his neck and took a deep breath.

Winter came running back down the corridor still glowing with Solar Light. "What happened?" She came to a stop in front of the tall Guardian.

"You left me in that pathetic attempt to kill the Captains." Lias growled angrily.

"I was trying to sike them out." Winter put her hands on her knees as her Light went out. "I thought maybe I could get one to chase me."

Lias shut his eyes to calm himself down. "You can't… always rely on being killed to use your powers, Winter." He said her name through gritted teeth.

She was about to give him some form of retort, but only nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Let's get out of here before we get ambushed again." Lias had his Ghost summon his helmet. "Don't know _why_ I wasn't wearing this thing."

Baris floated out and did the same for Winter. "So how far are we from the base?"

"We were actually getting close before your ship was gunned down." Lias said as he pushed some of rubble out of the way for Winter to cross.

"That's worrying." She said. "If we got attacked that close by the Fallen then…"

"Yeah," Lias sighed, "we just gotta hope they're there and they saw your ship crash."

"What about your own ship?"

"Sent it out of the area. Couldn't risk losing it."

"If only I could do that." She sighed.

As the two traversed down the building, they could hear the Fallen fighting something else. They could only hope it would be the Titans. When they reached the bottom the two Guardians saw the last of the Fallen get killed by Hive Knights.

"Are you shitting me!" Lias hissed as he ducked down.

"Hive Knights, armored in blue with…" Winter analyzed the Hive, "Telleth'uul's symbol etched into their heads."

"What are Telleth'uul's Hive doing here on Earth?" Lias cocked his head at her. "I thought they were on Venus."

Winter didn't say a word. She only watched as they began to pick up the dead Fallen bodies. "Are they going to start using the Fallen? If so, how if these are already dead?" The Knights dragged as many as they could carry with them out of the building. Winter started mumbling, coming up with theories as to what they could be doing with the dead Fallen. "-maybe using the Traveller's own Light to fuse the chitin and whatever else needed to create a subservient monster? No, that wouldn't make much sense… wouldn't it?"

"Winter?" Lias waved his hand in front of her face, but she wasn't giving him a response.

"Baris," she called for her Ghost, "compile a log of theoretical data for what the Hive in Telleth'uul's sect could be doing. I need every theory that I just thought of and that you could possibly think for-"

"This isn't the time, Winter." Lias pulled her by her wrist.

Winter pulled her hand away and followed behind him. "You don't have to be so rough, Lias."

Before Lias could snarl back like a dog, the Guardians began hearing gunfire. Lias ran to the door and peaked out to see who was fighting who. The people fighting were Guardians, they were attacking the Knights that had taken the dead bodies. When one Knight fell Lias took the chance to unleash his Arc energy and rush one of the other Knights. Winter ran out behind him, firing her pulse rifle at the furthest Knight who was doing its best avoiding the fight and bringing the dead cargo down into a cave. She landed some shots into the monsters back, but it managed to retreat into the infested cave.

"Damn it!" Winter put the sling of pulse rifle on her front side and her gun behind her as she went to chase the Knight.

"Hold it!" A woman with a powerful grip slammed her hand on Winter's shoulder and pulled her back. "If you go down there you'll be trapped!"

"What?" Winter looked at the Titan.

"Who are you two?" Another Titan asked.

"You're not authorized to be here. We haven't asked for reinforcements either and there's a Warlock with _you_ which means obviously not in the Inner Circle, so state your business," A hostile Titan aimed his weapon at Lias.

Lias brought his hands up. "We were sent by Zavala because we need to speak with Vossius. There is no need for you to aim that weapon at me."

"If you want to see Vossius, he's back at our camp." The Titan growled and lowered his gun. "Come on."

_The Inner Circle sure clouds a Titan's perception on the other classes, huh? _Winter thought to herself as she walked surrounded by heavily breathing brutes.

* * *

"Rhys is back from where the ship crashed." Vossius' Ghost woke him up. "He's also a _little_ angry."

"Thanks for the info, Stocks." The blue exo sat up from his makeshift bed and started putting his boots on. The armor he wore was black with brown accented lines on them, the mark on his side had the usual Titans symbol with a blue circle around it. The Titan walked out of the tent to see his the team he sent out arrive with two more Guardians.

Rhys stomped over to Vossius, his bushy brown eyebrows furrowed in anger. "These two say they were sent by the Commander. They say they want to talk to you."

Vossius nodded and walked towards them. "Who are you and why do you need me?"

"Winter." She crossed her arms and turned away from the Titan angrily.

"Lias," The Titan gave Vossius a salute, "I'm here to speak with you because I need you for a mission."

"You need me for a mission, yet I haven't completed _mine_." Vossius turned to walk back to his tent. "The fact that Zavala would send you rather than have you wait for me to return is the dumbest thing I have ever heard."

"Since were here, we can help you." Lias took a step forward.

"I suppose you could." Vossius stopped in front of the tent.

"What's the situation and how can we help you?"

Vossius opened his tent and gestured for the two to come in. Just as Winter reached the entryway, Rhys blocked her way.

"You'll have to stay outside." Rhys gave his best scowl.

Winter crossed her arms and stepped to the side to try and go in, but Rhys got in the way. _What is this classism crap Inner Circle Titans learn? _Winter was baffled by the Titans. _Maybe they believe any other class of Guardian is apart of Ikora's Hidden. _She started speculating.

"Alright, Lias," She shouted from outside, "I'll be here."

* * *

"My team and I were sent to deal with the Fallen here," Vossius explained. "The Fallen in Old London had intercepted communications with a base we had here. From there they had access to City communications. When we arrived none of the bodies of the Guardians stationed there were around neither were the Fallen. No matter where we looked we couldn't find them. Before we gave up hope and left we noticed that every place we had passed by where we killed Fallen the bodies were nowhere to be found."

"Just like in the base." Lias nodded his head. "If I'm connecting the dots correctly, you already know that those Guardians were taken by the Hive."

Vossius grunted, pleased with Lias' intuitiveness. "We sent a small fireteam down there, but soon they never reported back. Then one of my Titans went down there without authorization. When she tried to escape she ran into some kind of Hive force field, it wouldn't let her out. We couldn't risk sending another Titan to help her, so we watched her get murdered. The Knight sliced his sword down her back and tore her open. Her Ghost was taken by a Wizard and that was the end of that. Our objectives changed: We are stopping the Hive."

"What's your plan to stop them?"

"That's what I'm unsure of." Vossius put his hand under his chin.

"Well if anyone can come up with a plan, it'll be Winter."

"We don't need help from the Warlock." Vossius chuckled. "Trust me."

Lias raised an eyebrow at him. "She's a Hive expert."

Vossius sighed. "Rhys! Let her in!"

* * *

Winter walked in and was immediately briefed by the Titans on the situation. She began pacing back and forth around the room, piecing theories together with Baris.

"The Hive are taking any body, regardless of species. Hm, I think it's coming together" Winter nodded slowly. "So if your team of Titans weren't heard from and then your other Titan's Ghost was stolen by a Wizard then that must mean they're extracting the Light from us! My theory on using the Light to create a chitin infused monster is further backed by evidence!" She smiled.

"This isn't the time to confirm theories, Warlock!" Vossius looked at her angrily.

"My name is Winter and if you want a plan then we how about this: We charge in there and attack the central chamber."

"Central chamber?" Vossius questioned. "How do you know there's a central chamber?"

"It makes sense: The Hive take bodies down to the central chamber, do whatever ritual they need to do, then they repeat the same process. And the Hive always have some sort of main chamber in their temples, so you shouldn't be surprised by that information." Winter gave him a response with her eyes closed and nose pointed up like a stuck up child, to spite him.

"Alright, Winnie, you've explained yourself." Vossius said. "I don't like your plan, though."

"Do not call me, _Winnie_." She scolded him. "And my plan is the only way, unless we can bring a massive drill and dig from right above, but even then the ward they have casted is most definitely keeping us in regardless of how we get in there."

Vossius let out an impatient groan. His orange opticals lit up some more then went back to the its original dim orange, as if he had come to a conclusion. "I hate to admit this, but our morale is too low, no one will want to go down there. They won't want me to go, either."

"Why not? Aren't you the leader?" Winter asked.

"Because _Winnie,_" Vossius glared at her, "I'm what's keeping all of us together. I am the reason none of them have gone insane and left."

Winter crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "Then we leave at night. Don't tell them anything."

"I'd be breaking the Inner Circles bond _Winnie_, I can't just leave them out." Vossius' head shook slowly. "It's almost like breaking a rule."

"Some rules _should_ be broken." She set her jaw in determination.

Vossius sighed and shut his opticals off. "Alright. Tonight we head off into the caves… and we either get in and do what we have to or we die trying to stop the Hive."

With that, Winter and Lias were dismissed from the tent.

"So," Lias looked down at her, "_Winnie_."

"Don't you start too." Winter walked away from him.

_It's a pretty cute nickname._

He watched her sit down on an old rusted bench. Lias waited a minute or two before going himself to sit with her. The Titan stretched his arms up then laid them out sideways on the bench.

"Have you noticed how these Titans treat me?" Winter brought her feet up onto the bench.

"That's an Inner Circle Titan for you. They have it so ingrained in their heads that they're the better class of Guardians that they start to treat the rest of you poorly."

"Whatever," she mumbled, "as long as they don't ever interfere with my Hive research I'm fine."

Lias let out a small chuckle and shut his eyes. He felt something jab at his shoulder and opened his eyes to see Winter with her eyes shut, leaning against him with her elbow. They were both trying to pass the time as fast as they could. The quicker the mission ended, the sooner they could take Vossius and quit being around the Inner Circle.

* * *

Lias woke up to a bright full moon, chirping crickets, and Winter flipping through her romance book. She looked extremely invested in the book, every page kept her from noticing the Titan, or even the footsteps approaching them.

"How'd you two sleep?" They Guardians turned to see Vossius.

Lias cracked his back in response and Winter put her book down to speak. "Uncomfortably."

"Well no one asked you to sleep, Winnie."

Lias covered Winter's mouth before she could give the Titan a disrespectful remark. "We should head out now while the others aren't paying attention."

"Right, let's-"

"Vossius?" A feminine voice came out from the dark. "Where are you going?"

The Guardians slowly turned to see who spoke. An awoken Titan stood, glowing dim in the dark.

"Where are _you_ going, Gwenevieve?" Vossius deflected the question with his own.

"I'm going on a… light patrol."

"You're a bad liar, Gwen." Vossius tilted his head towards her.

The Titan exhaled hard. "I just wanted to study the Hive barrier magic."

"You aren't allowed out there unless I give the go ahead."

"Well, _you _aren't supposed to be doing whatever you're doing, yet here you are." Gwenevieve stepped forward. "Are you going to study the barrier with the Warlock?"

"Yes." He said bluntly.

"Well then I'm going. You'll need the extra firepower just in case of an attack."

"That won't be necessary." Winter decided to butt into the conversation. "We have everyone we need here."

Gwenevieve walked forward and pushed Winter aside to stand face to face with Vossius. "I know what you're really going to do, Vossius. It doesn't surprise me one bit either. And if you think you'll leave without telling us then you are sorely mistaken."

Vossius stared into the girl's bright green eyes. They stayed like that for a short period of time then Vossius decided to speak, "I doubt you'll be persuaded to let us go quietly."

"Your doubt is correct."

"Fine then, come." The exo began walking away, leaving a short distance between the other three who now followed behind.

* * *

Upon arrival to one of the cave entrances, Hive Knights were walking around patrolling the area. They stomped around with long glowing cleavers and Hive boomers. The entrance was connected to the outside of a building, it had Hive biomatter and small pale green crystals around it.

"How many Knights?" Winter asked.

"Four," Vossius answered.

"I bet you're glad you brought me then." Gwenevieve chuckled.

A loud groan of annoyance could be heard from the Warlock behind her. "We take them out two and two. Winnie and I will get these two. You and Lias will get the others."

"Why do I have to go with you?" Winter complained.

"If Lias really wants me to go on his mission I need to know how his team members fight."

"You won't learn much fighting from her." Lias said as he climbed over his cover with Gwen.

With the Guardians now split up, Winter and Vossius moved together, hiding behind cover getting close to one of the Knights. Without warning Vossius ran around his cover and tackled the demonic crustacean. It toppled over from the force and smashed down on the ground; with his fists charged with Void energy, Vossius punched the Knight's head over and over until nothing, but a pile of dust was left.

"That was so inefficient." Winter peaked from her cover.

"But it wasn't too loud, now was it?"

The Warlock ignored him and pushed up, readying herself to fight the next Knight. The beast began walking towards her cover. His cleaver banged on the ground four times, as if to see if his friend was still alive. Winter froze as the Knight slowly turned its head in her direction, just as he looked at her the loud _boom_ of a sniper rang out and his head was ripped clean off.

Winter could feel her body go cold with fear.

"Why didn't you attack?" Vossius growled at her. "You had like five chances to kill him."

"I was too caught up in my head on how I should strike that I just couldn't move when he got close."

Vossius shook his head in disbelief at the Warlock's reason. "You're lucky Gwen had a clear shot."

The team met up at the entrance of the cave. Baris appeared and turned on her Light for the Guardians to see. "Dark and ominous."

"Like every Hive cave."

Vossius walked ahead of everyone and stopped right in front of the oneway barrier. "We should leave something as an indicator in case we don't make it out."

Gwen took her sniper off of her back and placed it next to the cave. "There, as long as none of the Fallen take it, the others should know that's mine."

The Guardians all put their attention on the cave now. Lias was the one to go first, then Winter, then Vossius, then Gwenevieve, who hesitated as her foot passed through.

"Remember, they know when something that isn't Hive has entered." Winter reminded them.

"Let's get moving." Lias moved at a light jog down the Hive pathway. As they ran, the loud cries from Hive Thrall could be heard deep in the cave. The quiet whispers of praying Wizards slithered their way into the ears of the Guardians sending chills down their spines. Stomping from afar could be heard, possibly more Knights going to check on the situation at that entrance.

"We can't get caught by whatever is coming our way." Lias whispered. "We can hide in here until they pass." He pointed at another pathway to their right. One by one, they all slipped inside of the smaller path. Winter crossed the furthest out of the others. As the other three waited and watched the Knights and Acolytes pass, Winter continued down the path. She squirmed her way so far that she managed to fall out into another pathway.

The area she was in glowed yellow and and had a murky, vomit green mist flowing down by her feet, the space was small and seemed to lead deeper than the path they had just taken. Winter tapped the side of her helmet activating her communications. "Guys, come down this way." The Titans looked to see where Winter had gone. "It goes lower then the main path."

Winter watched as each Titan pushed through the Hive biomatter and entered the room with her. The Warlock took the lead now, walking lightly in front of the three heavy boots behind her. As they descended, Hive light crystals became less active and the haunting sound of Wizards praying grew louder. They could only assume a ritual was taking place at the same time as the infiltration.

The Guardians took another path which led them to an open room with dead Fallen strewn all over the floor and a pillar in the center. They were naked and looked mutated; the Hive chitin infused in their exoskeletons created abnormal holes and indents. Some had their eyes fused shut, others had nothing but empty sockets. Winter bent down to get a better look at a Fallen whose abdomen was grossly expanded and making sloshing noises.

"Baris, get a snapshot of everything we find here." She ordered her Ghost.

"Even if the Fallen are our enemy, they don't deserve to die like this." Gwenevieve pushed a mutilated Fallen over.

"Where are the Guardians they took?" Lias searched the room with Vossius.

Winter stood up. "They could have taken them to another roo-" A cracking noise right behind her cut her off. The Warlock looked behind her to see the pregnant Fallen rising up; its eyes glowed a sickly green color and some kind of substance spilled out of its mouth. She stepped back, the Fallen stepped forward.

It began emitting some kind of sound and more dead Fallen began rising. The Fallen then began vomiting it substance, trying to get it on the Guardian. Winter aimed her gun and fired three times into its stomach, popping it and ending the poor Fallen for good. She could hear the others firing at the zombie Fallen.

The moans of the dead filled the room as they all fought to survive.

"Why are the Hive doing this to the Fallen?" Vossius yelled into the comms.

"They're doing this to more than _just_ the Fallen." Winter ran over to him. "They're experimenting with the animals of Venus too. Maybe even doing it with some of the Guardians."

"You're good with the Hive, how do we stop this?" Vossius sprayed bullets across the room killing more Fallen.

"We most likely have to find whoever has been chanting." Lias answered.

"We don't have the bullets to stay here looking for this chanter." Gwen argued.

"Do we have a choice?" Lias reminded her.

During their fight, the zombies had begun to corner Vossius. Winter ran to his aid with solar bombs at the ready. She flung them into the crowd of Fallen and watched as boils and stomachs popped open. The Warlock tossed a healing orb at Vossius, which dissipated as he touched it.

As the fight raged on, a loud screech emerged from the far corner of the room. There appeared Acolytes, all glowing a soft blue_._ A Wizard came from behind them, she had a long, flowing gown, her mask was sharp around the edged and left her grey, bald face and bright green eyes exposed for them to fear. She hissed something mysterious and the Acolytes started their attack.

"Split up and kill the Acolytes!" Vossius called out.

Winter split left with him. She followed in his footsteps, firing pulse shots at any Acolyte she could. Most of the Hive warriors would hide before her shots could hit them. She pressed her hand to Vossius' back as he fired and killed two Acolytes. It seemed best for her to just play a support role for the battle. Keeping the Titan alive was easy so long as he stayed close.

The Wizard grew more and more angry as she watched her Acolytes die, so she took matters into her own hand. Teleporting across the room, she appeared behind Gwen and grabbed her by the neck. Lias fired at her, trying to free Gwen, but was knocked down by an Acolyte's gun fire. Hearing the Titan fall, Winter decided to run to him. She threw a solar orb at the Wizard to try and free Gwen, and started healing Lias as fast as she could. The Wizard swerved out of the way of the bomb and threw the Titan into the nearest wall.

"Go help Gwenevieve!" Lias shouted to Winter. "I'll keep her distracted."

Winter followed his orders and ran after the fallen Guardian. The Warlock fired at the Wizard to keep her from grabbing the Titan again. When she heard Lias begin to shoot, she put all of her attention to helping Gwen.

"Get up!" Winter put the Titan's arm around her shoulders and tried to lift her up. "Gwenevieve!"

Gwenevieve was knocked unconscious from the Wizard. She heard a loud noise burst through the room and saw the Wizard floating over the middle pedestal charging some kind of energy. All of a sudden, she began feeling weak.

"Concentrate fire on her! Stop her from completing that!" Vossius yelled.

All three Guardians aimed there weapons at her and fired. A storm of bullets unleashed onto the Wizard. Winter tossed a solar orb, Vossius tossed one of his suppressor grenades, and Lias chucked an unstable ball of Arc energy. The combination of three different Light sources caused a bright flash of light to explode on her. The Wizard screamed in agony as she burned.

Now feeling revitalized, Winter and Vossius both took charge and attacked the Wizard head on. Burning a bright gold, Winter jumped at the Wizard and unleashed a kick to her jaw. Bits and pieces of her helmet came off and her face burned now. Vossius began unloading a heavy machine gun into the Wizard's skull. She did her best to keep the bullets from hitting her, but Winter came in with a bomb in her hand. The Wizard screeched again. She extended her hand and started launching a barrage of Hive energy from it. The Titan created a massive bubble, shielding himself from the attack.

Winter ran inside of the bubble.

"Do the strengthening thing you did earlier!" Vossius ordered.

Instead of putting her hand on Vossius, Winter created the energy in her hand and threw it on the ground, creating a pool of energy for both to use.

"Drop the bubble!"

Vossius complied. When the bubble dropped, the two Guardians unloaded into the Wizard. A rocket, from Lias, launched out and smacked into the Wizard's side. The Hive leader fell over and began screeching even louder than before.

"Reinforcements!"

The Guardians watched as Hive from all around the room entered. The Wizard hissed angrily and teleported in an attempt to escape.

"The Wizard's gone!"

"Forget about that, Vossius!" Winter pulled him by his hand. "We have to go!"

The two ran over to Gwenevieve who was now regaining consciousness. "Get up!" Vossius pulled the Titan violently.

"Lias!" Winter called his name.

The Titan came over doing his best to run. "Where do we go?" He asked.

"Baris," Winter summoned her Ghost, "can you scan the cave system? Find another area we can go to!"

"Yes!" The Ghost panicked. "Wait…"

"Baris!"

"I know! Hold on!" The Ghost's shell turned slightly. "The barrier is down! We can escape!"

"We fight our way out then!" Lias started firing at Thrall as they piled out of the way they came from. Each Guardian followed behind him, shooting around the Titan. They each found a space to shoot from and fired at the Thrall. Winter turned around when she heard the loud roar of a Knight and started firing at it. Vossius turned to help her as well.

As they fought, Lias charged up his Arc abilities. He tossed his gun aside and ran into the storm of Thrall. He jumped and slammed down, discharging high amounts of Arc energy around the Thrall. They disintegrated giving them a chance to continue their escape.

The team exited the room Winter had found earlier and continued running until they saw the way they came in.

Lias charged the exit, Arc Light shimmering off of his body. He brought a fist up and punched the air as he ran out. The Titan had assumed the barrier was still up and Winter's Ghost had been wrong.

The other three came out behind him. Once they were a safe distance, the Guardians stopped running. Winter fell to her knees panting like a dog. Lias put his hands on his knees trying to control his breathing. Gwen had laid down on her back and Vossius covered his eyes with his arm.

"How did the barrier drop?" Gwen asked after regaining her breath.

Winter leaned on one hand as she readied herself to respond. "It must've have been the Wizard. Her presence could have been what held the barrier."

"Which means…"

"Yeah," Winter nodded. "The Wizard is gone."

Vossius punched a nearby wall. "Damn it! We almost had it!"

Baris appeared and began to pull up information for Winter.

Winter sighed. "There still might be a chance to kill her."

Vossius' head snapped towards her.

"But only if you come with us."

"What do you mean?"

"The Wizard we fought," Winter started, "she is Telleth'uul's most trusted Wizard, so I can only imagine where she cold have gone from here."

"Straight to Telleth'uul." Vossius whispered.

"If you really want justice for your lost Titans then join us."

Vossius looked down at the ground for a moment. "I'll join you."

"I will, too." Gwen said.

"No, you won't."

"Why is that?"

"Because I need you here." Vossius glared at her. "You'll stay here and command the Titans. Have them enter the caves and see what they can find down there that we haven't."

Gwenevieve hesitated to respond, knowing full well that the disagreement would escalate into a battle between them. "Fine. I'll stay, but you better come back."

"I don't plan on dying, Gwen." He called up his Ghost to summon his ship. "Now head back and tell them what happened here."

She saluted and was gone. Lias walked over to the exo. "Meet us at these coordinates in the City." His Ghost gave Vossius' the location. "From there we'll discuss our next move."

The exo nodded and walked off to the landing ship.

When he left, Winter sauntered over to Lias. "So, how do we plan on getting me back?"

Lias sighed in frustration. "Ever sat on a Titan's lap before?"


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4: Who We Get Instead_

"Can you hurry it up, Winter!" Vossius pounded his fist against the bathroom door. He continued for a while longer until Winter swung the door open. She had a big smile on her face as she walked out wearing a different set of robes.

"Well," She twirled, "what do you think?"

The robe Winter wore was still short and blue, but parted just above her belly leaving a small portion of it exposed for the world to see. The robe didn't have sleeves so she wore gloves to compensate.

"I think you're too exposed to go out on the field." The exo looked her up and down.

"Do you have any idea how humid Venus is?" She walked passed the Titan while tying a portion of her hair back. "I'm just taking precautions to avoid passing out."

Vossius grumbled something and followed her to the living room.

"We ready to go?" Kyer walked out wearing a vest with a short sleeved tunic under. Winter gave Vossius a smug look and stood up. "What's with that look, Winter?"

"_Vossius_ thinks I'm too underdressed for Venus."

Kyer snorted. "You seem to be dressed fine to me." His eyes scanned up and down Winter's body.

"See, Vossius, I'm perfectly fine."

"Let's _go_." He pushed the Warlock out the door.

* * *

"Here we are." Kyer landed the Javelin on a rocky cliff. "Wakey, wakey, Warlock." He started patting Winter's face.

Winter moaned quietly, adjusting herself in her seat. The Hunter gave her a cheerful smile and opened the shuttles main door.

"Where are we headed, Hunter?" Vossius grabbed his gun off of his back.

"Lias should be waiting for us with Rowan and Amalia near an Ishtar Academy's main Archive, so we'll be heading there." Kyer called up his Ghost, summoning his sparrow in front of him. "We don't got all day."

Winter and Vossius did the same and followed the Hunter down a path, around a small set of buildings. They came to a staircase where the Fallen had set up a small camp. Kyer, being the first to arrive, took his auto rifle off of his back and began firing at them. He sprayed his bullets into a Dreg's chest then focused down two Vandals. Winter and Vossius came up behind him and both threw grenades at the last three stragglers.

The trio made their way down a makeshift tunnel and out into what looked to be an open library.

"Wow," Winter floated up to the upper floor and slipped a book out of its position, "so much information lost to the elements of this planet. If only we could restore it." She sighed.

As she looked through the books the other two Guardians went ahead making sure the area was secure. The room was visibly clear, with multiple Vex bodies scattered around the floor, one in particular had its radiolaria holder dented, as if someone had stepped on it.

"Who could have done that?" Kyer knelt down to examine the damage.

"It wasn't us, that's for sure."

Recognizing the voice they all looked towards the source. Three other Guardians were nearing them. Lias and two other Hunters: Amalia and Rowan. Rowan had a dark, thin face and was about Winter's height with a lean build. Stubble grew in patches on his face. He was dressed in a black armored bodysuit with a cloak covered in Venus flora and carried a sniper on his back.

Amalia stood the shortest out of all of them. A slender awoken with a soft, round lavender face and freckles littered in just the right areas of her face. Her hair was a purple-magenta, all tied in a messy bun. She dressed in a black sleeveless tunic with a hooded scarf in vibrant pink; her pants were wildly tucked into her boots.

Last out of all of them was Lias, who didn't look too different aside from missing both sleeves on his arms and dirt on his face.

"Rowan, Amalia, this is Winter and Vossius." Winter gave a quick wave.

"What happened to your armor, Lias?" Vossius pointed at the missing sleeves.

Lias brought his arm up to look at it. "It's humid on Venus." He shrugged. "You're not burning up in all of that armor?"

Vossius didn't respond, he only looked away when Winter floated down next to him.

"We've got a camp near the Hall of Whispers." Rowan gestured for them to go ahead of him.

"Hall of Whispers?" Winter raised an eyebrow.

"It's just a fun name Rowan and I gave the place we're trying to clear of Fallen." Amalia hopped over next to her.

* * *

The six Guardians walked into a small room where the two Hunters had been staying.

"Amalia and I have been tasked with securing the Archives for the Cryptarchs, but we ran into some trouble when trying to get in." Rowan explained. "The Fallen are trying to get in and they have heavy defenses in the area."

"Such as?" Vossius asked.

Rowan side eyed him and continued. "Cloaked Vandals ready to snipe any guests who don't wear their colors. Tons of little Dregs running about. And last but not least, a Servitor we identified as _Simiks-3._"

"He has a name, so he must be a big deal." Kyer muttered.

"He won't be too much of an issue with you all here." Amalia smiled.

Winter studied the map. She looked at the X marks signifying where each sniper stood at the ready. "Vossius, do you think you can place a Ward of Dawn right at the entrance?"

"Of course I can, _Winnie_." He scoffed.

"Can you create small openings in it to allow us to shoot through?" Lias now spoke.

Vossius nodded, understanding what they wanted to do. Rowan began tracing his finger up the map. "We'll split into two teams when we take out the snipers. Amalia, you'll go with the Warlock and the exo up these stairs. Provide us with whatever covering fire you can and _watch your backs_. I'll take these two and lead them through the lower floor."

Amalia's smile grew wider. "Let's do our best!" The awoken readied her hand cannon and rushed out the door. Winter and Vossius gave each other a look and followed behind.

* * *

Before entering the Hall of Whispers, team had to dispatch a small squad of Fallen outside. As they moved, they encountered and destroyed hidden trip mines in the hallway to the area.

The six Guardians all ran to the door and stopped. "Put your Ward up right there." Rowan pointed at an area right in range of the snipers.

"Those snipers will shoot me before I have the chance to put it up." He argued quietly.

"You'll need to trust me."

"Trusting a Hunter is never a good idea." The exo growled.

"Stop being so stubborn!" Rowan stamped his foot down. "I'm leading this mission, so shut your mouth and listen to your orders!"

Vossius' mouth clamped shut. The tension in the air made Winter feel awkward as she stood crouched in between the two. The Titan's body began glowing purple with Void energy as he stepped into the open. Rowan angrily took his sniper and aimed it at a small blue glow. Two quick shots from Rowan's sniper, ripped the Vandals heads clean off.

The fight to enter the Archives had begun.

* * *

When Rowan sniped the Vandals, Vossius had jumped in fear and created his bubble shield through impulse. The start of their plan had clearly changed. He began looking around as the other five Guardians scattered through the field. Winter and Amalia ran up the stairs, while the other three took position behind crates and pillars. Vossius took a second longer to assess the situation before running up the stairs.

"Winnie, right?" Amalia crouched down next to the Warlock."Think you slam a nova bomb on the Fallen down there?"

Winter disregarded the use of her nickname and nodded. "I'm not very proficient in my Void abilities, but I can try." She clasped her hands together and began charging up Void energy.

"Vossius come with me." She spun her hand cannon and ran out. The Hunteress moved swiftly through the field. Jumping over barricades and throwing knives, shooting heads off with her hand cannon while keeping her speed. Vossius watched in awe at her movements. In the blink of an eye, Amalia was already wrestling down a Captain with her legs wrapped around its waist and a knife in its throat.

The Titan held his gun up and started firing at any of the other enemies that tried to attack her. During the fight a loud _-FWOOM- _rushed passed Vossius and the Guardians below. The exo turned to see Void energy coming off of Winter's body. She fell to her hands and knees, breathing heavily. Vossius grabbed her arm and pulled her up.

"No time to rest!" Was all her said as he ran off.

Winter took her gun from its sling and began firing from her position. Landing shots on Dregs as they rushed out of hiding to attack the other two.

"Snipers!" Baris called out for Winter. The Warlock aimed her gun at the arachnids and fired. One was shot down, but the other managed to hide just in time.

"Damn!" She hissed and crouched behind the railing. Winter knew if she looked up again she'd lose her head, so instead she tossed a solar bomb overhead. She couldn't be sure that the Vandal had burned due to all the noise, so she summoned Baris. "Scan the roof and tell me where the-" A sniper shot rang out and the Vandal fell.

"_Nice job everyone._" Kyer said through his radio. "_Come on down._"

"_Don't celebrate too soon, Kyer!_" Rowan sounded like he had thrown himself to the floor. "_Simiks is here!_"

Winter ran over to Vossius who had begun shooting at the Fallen who ran out behind the Servitor.

"We need to wear down Simiks' barrier!" Amalia holstered her hand cannon and grabbed another one. Throwing her hand up, Solar Light exploded around the weapon then her. She jumped off of the second floor and fired three shots into Simiks' center point. To slow her descent, Amalia distorted the gravity under her feet and jumped again.

Winter and Vossius both jumped off of the second floor using their own methods of descent and started firing at the now weakened Servitor. Simiks made a loud whirring sound, almost like a signal, to call more of its Fallen allies. He started firing a barrage of Void energy at the Guardians. One of his shots hit right under Winter's feet, throwing into the air. She flipped and slammed down on her back. Luckily, Lias was close enough to drag her to cover.

"Focus your fire on Simiks!" Rowan ordered. The Guardians listened and began firing on it. The Servitor emitted a squeal and recoiled as the heavy fire from the team rained down on it. Louder and louder, the Servitor squealed until it began spinning out of control and detonated. With Simiks down, the Fallen were now outmatched against the Guardians and soon were killed.

"Winnie." Lias patted her cheek. "Are you okay?"

"I'm…" She groaned and brought to her back. Solar light glowed under her palm as she healed herself. "Much better."

"Good," he chuckled, "I didn't want to have to carry you."

She gave him a weary smile. Winter pressed her hand against his shoulder and pulled herself up. The others had entered the building ahead of them. They surrounded a console.

Rowan noticed the two and walked over. "Thank the Traveller we arrived when we did. The Fallen almost got into the Archives first then us."

"So we're going inside?" Winter practically jumped on the tips of her toes with excitement.

"That's the plan, yes." He smiled.

Winter pressed her hand to her chest and began relieving the pain from her excited movements. She walked at Lias' side, taking quick steps to keep up with his long strides.

"Radial-A encryption. They were serious about keeping people out." Amalia's Ghost said as he shot out a beam. "Not a problem."

The door began to open slowly. A skeleton laying against it tipped over.

"After you." Amalia and her Ghost said simultaneously.

* * *

The staircase was quite dramatic as it spiraled downwards. Winter walked with Baris at her side, scanning for anything out of place. "Unbelievable. The Archives power is partially activated." Baris scanned frantically.

When they made it to the bottom an automated system activated. "Welcome, Doctor Shim. Please enter your security clearance code."

"Doctor Shim?..." Amalia's Ghost looked at her. "Nevermind that. Let's hit that terminal up ahead."

"Vossius," Lias turned to the exo, "you and Kyer guard the door. We don't want any Fallen sneaking up behind us."

Vossius gave a quick nod and walked back with Kyer at his side. He knew that the exo would listen if he was the one to give the order. The rest of the team walked to a terminal in an open cylindrical space.

"This place is amazing!" Amalia's Ghost started talking again. "It's bigger than the Archives at Old Accra!"

"Your Ghost is cute, Amalia." Winter couldn't help but giggle.

"That's Ghost for you." Amalia watched as he began scanning the terminal.

After a short time, the feminine voice came back. "Thank you, Doctor Shim. Shall I begin correlation of Vex Mind Core samples?"

"So polite!" Ghost spun happily. "Well, we should take a look."

"Security breach detected! Intruders! Initiate Protocol 19!"

Everyone looked to see Vossius and Kyer running back while shooting at the Fallen.

Kyer ducked under cover, panting wildly. "Too many of them! We can't take them out all on our own!"

"Winnie! Take the high ground with Rowan!" Lias commanded.

Winter and Rowan made their way up the stairs where they met Dregs hungry to kill. Winter started her attack with a blazing ball of fire. Once tossed, her gun shot three bursts out at the Dregs. Rowan stayed a good distance behind sniping the Dregs who escaped Winter's bullets.

Amalia and Lias moved under the other two. Lias fired at the distant Fallen while Amalia had Ghost summon her bow. The tiny awoken pulled the arrow back and let it go, skewering three Dregs.

"Nice shot!" Kyer gave her a thumbs up. The Guardians moved to where a Vandal had been trying to access a panel on the wall.

"Cover me while I fix this." Ghost began to fix the panel.

"Reinforcements!"

* * *

Winter and Rowan ran around on the upper floor fighting Fallen at every turn. The chatter from the other Guardians could be heard not far from their location.

"A bit of help from them wouldn't hurt." Winter complained as she shot a Dreg.

"Focus on _our _fight, Warlock," Rowan responded calmly.

Winter threw her hand out fast with her palm facing the enemy sending a bolt of fire threw a Vandal's chest. "I am as focused as can be!" She sent another bolt out.

Rowan threw a knife to Fallen about to sneak up behind her. "We should- Servitor! Get down!"

Winter dove down as a Void blast smashed near her.

_Don't want to get hit by that again! _She scrambled up to her feet and jumped off the floor avoiding another blast. Rowan twisted around and followed her off. When Winter jumped she assumed she would fall on the ground and recover quickly; what happened instead was she fell on top of Vossius.

"Get off of me!" Vossius barked.

Winter gasped loudly and covered her chest. "Sorrysorrysorrysorry!"

Rather then use her gun, Winter decided to aid her team with a glowing pool of healing Light.

"Remote hub failure. Routing disrupted."

"The Servitor!" Winter shouted.

Amalia looked at her. "Where?" Winter pointed at the second floor. The Hunteress put her bow on her back and started running. She jumped once then again, managing to get up to the second floor. Once up there, using her bow, she took out two Fallen and another with a knife. The Servitor stopped what it was doing to turn and shoot her. The Hunteress went to grab her holstered hand cannon, but was hit by one of the blasts.

Winter looked up and saw Amalia fall back her hand cannon falling into the pit to their left. "Cover me!" She called out and dashed for the stairs. Winter found Amalia trying her best to get back up. She seemed to be disoriented from the direct hit. The Warlock charged up a healing orb in her hand and tossed it before going out to fight the Servitor. The orb landed and popped on Amalia, healing her wounds.

Amalia sat up and watched Winter fight the Servitor. She looked around and noticed a sniper about to shoot the Warlock. "Winnie, duck!"

Winter dropped flat on the ground right as a blue wire like projectile passed over her. Her eyes widened with the sudden surprise of her enemies position: the Servitor was floating just in front of her. Her body froze as she prepared herself to die, but then an Arc charged fist dented the Servitors center. Another hand grabbed her by the neck and pulled her back.

"Start fighting!" Vossius charged in and slammed another fist into the Servitor. Amalia came up from behind her shooting at the purple orb. Winter's hands began burning with Solar energy. She pushed herself off the ground and threw her palm a few inches from the Servitor sending a burning blast of fire at it. The Servitor smacked into the wall behind it with a shrill scream. Vossius finished it off with a pulse grenade.

Winter put her hands on her knees as she panted. Baris popped out and began repairing the conduit. "I'll have it back together quick."

"Baron!" Winter's head shot up to see a Amalia and Vossius running down to the Archives main computer. She rolled her eyes while taking a deep breath and jogged behind them.

Arriving on the first floor, Winter could see the other three Guardians fighting a massive wave of Fallen and the two with her trying to kill a Baron. Taking up her rifle she shot at the Baron trying to stagger him as he attacked. It seemed to work, he missed his sword swings on Amalia who fought too close for comfort. The Huntress slid under the Baron, but the Fallen was prepared for her and grabbed her arm. He flung her right at the nuisance shooting at him from behind. Amalia wasn't fast enough to recover and knocked the air out of Winter as she collided with her.

During the fight, Vossius had been dealing with two sword wielding Vandals. His fight ended when he cracked their heads together. He looked up to see how the other two were doing and was met with a Baron on top of him.

"Get off of me!"

The Baron roared. The horrible smell of his breath and spittle hit Vossius' face causing him to recoil and bang his head on the floor behind him. Amalia took a knife from her belt and threw it. She hit the Fallen's arm giving Vossius a chance to get out of its grasp and punch it. It rolled off of him and started to reach for its weapons. Vossius turned over to grab his own weapon. When he grabbed the auto rifle, the Baron had started to charge the other two.

Amalia had hoped the Baron would still attack Vossius after hitting him with the knife, but it seemed to only get pissed off at her. "Winnie!" She pulled the Warlock up and immediately pushed her away as the Baron slashed at them. Winter fell on her butt and Amalia hit her back against a wall. The Baron decided to go for Warlock.

Winter distorted gravity around her body and pushed backwards as he tried to stab her. She glided across the floor quickly. This gave Amalia the chance to jump on its back and jam a knife into the Baron's neck. When Winter came in contact with the wall, she pushed herself off and slammed a burning palm into the Baron's stomach. The blow threw him back causing Amalia to fall as well.

Vossius now fired at him; not missing a single shot as he unloaded the entire clip. His bullets pierced the Baron's chest and tore the exoskeleton open in a gory mess.

"Nice." Amalia sat covered in reddish-purple blood. Vossius and Winter stared at the Huntress. "We should probably help with the stragglers."

* * *

**"****This Archive is amazing: pathways to other galaxies, mappings of a Vex underworld, a place they called 'the Vault of Glass****.'" Ghost and Winter both read through the information. "Hopefully, the Cryptarch can make sense of it. I'll let him know we found it."**

"The Vault of Glass?" Rowan repeated quietly to himself.

"Know anything about that?" Lias' head tilted slightly.

Rowan paused for a moment as if he was contemplating something then shook his head. "Ghost give me the information. I'll speak to the Cryptarchs about it and see what we can do with it."

Kyer's head snapped towards the Hunter. "You're not gonna come with us Rowan?"

"No," He placed a hand under his chin. "I need to sort this information out." He looked at Amalia, who looked back and immediately shook her head.

"Me?" She pointed at herself. "Rowan, I can't just move on to another group."

"You knew this was bound to happen." He shrugged.

Amalia looked down sadly. "You've been my mentor for so long… I just never thought we'd separate so soon. It'll be so different… I don't-"

"You'll be _alright_, Amalia." Rowan assured her. "Trust me."

Amalia stared at her mentor with a worried expression. Instead of giving another excuse only she nodded. "Okay."

"Now that _that's_ been settled," Rowan put his hands together. "I shall be on my way." He bowed dramatically.

The five Guardians watched the Hunter for a short time. Amalia kept her gaze on Rowan for longer. The farther Rowan went the more her body began sweating.

Winter put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it'll be alright." She gave her a welcoming smile.

"You have nothing to worry about, Amalia." Kyer gave her a big smile. "You can always talk to us like we're Rowan."

Amalia laughed a little. "If you say so."

"We should get out of here." Lias started for the door. Vossius grunted in response and followed next to him, Kyer ran up behind them leaving Winter and Amalia.

Winter gave her another smile. "I'm not used to working in groups either."

"I can work in groups… I've just never worked in groups without Rowan being around." She said with concern.

"Well, if you need someone to talk to, you can always come to me."

_That's what friends do… right? _Field research and studying in a library never left Winter time for making friends, aside from Baris, but she was basically attached to Winter. _I guess I can sort of relate to her. Although, I was much more open when I met Lias and Kyer, but that's because we talked about an interest of mine… I probably should talk to her and not to myself in my own head. _Winter chuckled softly with a concerned expression on her own face. Amalia only glanced over at the Warlock and moved an inch away from her.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5_

Amalia and Winter stepped out onto the Tower Watch. Both were exhausted from Vossius' training exercise. "Is this a normal thing you guys do?" Amalia looked over at the tired Warlock.

"Maybe for Vossius, but I just met him the other day… officially at least." She answered. "He's part of the Inner Circle if you were wondering."

"That explains his somewhat pretentious behavior… and the awesome guns." Her eyes lit up.

Winter took note of the excitement. "Are you a big fan of weapons?"

Amalia practically bounced. "Hell yeah, I am! Got any cool ones?"

Winter shook her head and stepped towards the vault access. She entered a code unlocking her storage. "Unfortunately not, I mostly store artifacts I've studied and books that I don't want in my apartment." Amalia took a look at the vault interface.

"Do any of these books tell you anything about Hive guns?"

"No, sorry."

"Vex Teleporters?"

"Nope…"

"An access map to secret Golden Age weapons that could be hidden in the City walls?"

"What?"

Winter seemed quite boring to Amalia, but she could definitely fix that. "Have you ever gone treasure hunting? If you haven't you should try it! Rowan and I have found some awesome stuff on hunts!" She nudged Winter and accessed her vault. "Look at this."

Amalia entered her vault code and scrolled through an overwhelming amount of weapons until she stopped at one. Winter leaned in close to see the projection of a strange Hive weapon. It was long with some sort of chitin around it and a Hive symbols littered all around it. The description, Winter assumed, was written by Amalia due to the simple vocabulary and lack of capitalization.

"Interesting. Where did you find this?" She glanced at the shorter Guardian.

"On the moon. Had to kill a massive Ogre to get it." Amalia stood proudly. "The symbol changes every so often. Pretty cool, huh?"

Winter jolted in surprise as the hologram updated the symbol. "That is fascinating… I've seen that symbol before. It was in the cavern Teleth'uul's Hive are in."

Amalia pressed at the screen to get it from her vault. "If that's the case then let's bring it with us. Maybe it'll open some kind of treasure!"

Winter nodded. Although she hadn't flat out said it, Winter liked Amalia's idea of secret treasure. She wouldn't be surprised if it actually did access some form of Hive technology.

"Hey, you two." As soon as they heard the voice, Winter began fiddling with her coattails, while Amalia did a complete 180 turn to see Lias behind them.

"What's up, Lias?" Amalia waved at him. She elbowed Winter softly to turn.

Winter turned around and started tucking hair behind her ear. "Hi." Lias walked up to them and started talking to Amalia. _He's so perfect with those gorgeous grey eyes and those big strong arms! _Lias' eyes met hers causing her heart to skip a beat. Her eyes darted away, but she continued to listen to their conversation.

"I hope he wasn't too hard on you guys." Lias said.

"Well, I was pretty good at facing him. Took him down three times. Winter though…" Amalia smirked, "she had some issues against Vossius."

"I'm just bad at fighting well-trained Guardians."

Lias put his hand on Winter's shoulder. "Well then I guess it's a good thing we're fighting Hive." Winter could feel her face heat up from his touch. "We should head over to Kyer's place."

"Y-Yeah, sounds good!" Winter stuttered.

On the way to the apartment the three met up with Vossius.

* * *

When they entered the apartment, a Warlock in a long tattered, black coat with ammo pouches covering the chest and belt, sat at the round kitchen table reading a datapad looked up. His icy blue opticals eyed the three unknown Guardians. He put the datapad down and placed his hands on his lap. "Eralis." Was all he said leaving the three a little confused.

"Right! We forgot to introduce you to him." Lias walked in between them. " Eralis this is Amalia, Vossius, and Winnie."

"Winter." Winter coughed out quietly.

Eralis nodded and walked to the bedroom door and knocked. "Kyer, they're here."

Eralis backed away from the door as it swung open and Kyer marched out happily. "Is everyone ready to go to Venus?" Kyer held two thumbs up at them waiting for a response. When he didn't get one he just pushed past them. "Come on!"

* * *

Sitting in the Javelin, Winter was cross-legged on the floor reading the last chapters in her romance novel and Vossius watched as the other Guardians talk.

"You should be preparing rather than reading." Vossius sat down on the chair near Winter.

She kept her eyes on the book. "I am as prepared as I'll ever be."

Before Vossius could say anything else, Amalia walked onto the ship with the Hive sniper and sat on the floor with Winter. "Here it is, Winnie!" Winter put her book down and placed a hand on the weapon to examine it. The weapon was black with strange etchings and had a slight vibrating feeling in its center. The material was definitely not something found in their solar system.

"I have never described a weapon as _beautiful_ before, but…" Winter was almost transfixed on it.

Baris appeared and scanned the sniper. The Ghost did her version of a shudder and looked at Winter. "I don't like it."

"Why's that?"

Baris didn't respond for a short time. "It feels… _invasive_."

Winter fixed her gaze on it. _What kind of Hive magic is this? _"Maybe you should carry the sniper with a strap, Amalia. You know, to avoid Ghost from being destroyed internally by Hive magic." She laughed nervously. Amalia agreed and hopped out of the ship to buy a strap for the gun.

* * *

"_Alrighty passengers, we will be arriving at our destination in 4 hours. Thank you for flying AirKyer." _The comm unit shut off.

Amalia looked at her teammates: Winter sat in the corner reading her book. Vossius shined his auto rifle. Lias slept in a seated position. Eralis meditated near Winter. Everyone seemed preoccupied with something, while she secretly feared what was to come.

Usually when she was scared she'd go to Rowan and vent, but he wasn't around and the next best thing was sitting in the corner hungrily reading her book. _I'm gonna freak if I don't say anything! _Amalia's breathing sped up and she grabbed hold of her capes fabric. The anxiety building up inside of her felt like it was weighing her down. She couldn't handle it and made her way to Winter.

_What is she doing? _Winter sat with the book in her hands, but it didn't look as if she was reading. Amalia noticed Winter's forehead looking a little glossy from sweat. Amalia placed a hand on her shoulder causing Winter's head to jolt up at her.

"E-Everything alright?" Amalia asked.

Winter's eyes went back to her book. She sighed and shut the book. "No. I'm sweating like crazy."

"I'm nervous too."

"I'm not nervous…" Her voice was shakier. "I just… I hate thinking of what could happen if-"

Winter was cut off by Vossius' laughter. The girls both looked at the Titan. "What's there to fear, Winnie?"

Winter looked down at the book cover, thinking of how to respond. "I'm afraid of-"

"_Of nothing_." Vossius interrupted her. "You're afraid _of nothing_ down there."

"How could you possibly know that, Vossius?"

"Weren't you the Guardian who went down into the cave? You went alone to get intel for the Tower and here you are. Alive!" Vossius put his gun down and stood up. "This'll be the same. The only difference is you'll be heading deeper into the cave to fight the source and you have some combat training from me."

Winter looked down at her hands. Solar fire shimmered softly around them. A smile crept on her lips as she was filled with a new sense of determination. The two made eye contact solidifying the feeling in her. Hearing Vossius' words made Amalia feel better about it too, but she still needed to vent; from the look Winter gave her, the Warlock could tell.

"What's on your mind, Amalia?" Winter put a hand on the awoken's back.

"I…" Amalia scratched at the exposed skin on her shoulder. "Usually before a mission like this I have Rowan for comfort, but now…"

"You have us for the time being." Lias chimed in. She looked to see Winter with a small smile on her face.

Amalia sighed and looked at her new friends. "This whole mission is insane. We're going down into an infested pit of Hive to kill their leader. We don't know what to expect when we pass the point Winter reached and it's freaking me out!"

"We'll figure it out." Lias crossed his arms. "With Winter's knowledge on the Hive, Vossius' leadership, and your ability to adapt quickly, there's no way we can't defeat Telleth'uul."

The Hunteress tugged on her scarf a little. _They're putting so much faith in me. _It made her shiver. When she met these Guardians, they were looking to recruit Rowan, not her. She didn't meet Rowan's level in skills, but they still seemed to accept her into the group. _Maybe it was due to being friends with Rowan._ That thought bothered her. She didn't want to be seen as Amalia: Rowan's companion. She wanted to be her own entity in all of this. Known for her own skills. _I guess this'll prove if I can make a name for myself._

Amalia exhaled loudly and shut her eyes. The rest of the way to Venus, they were quiet.

* * *

The area they landed in on Venus was new to everyone, but Winter. The entrance to Telleth'uul's domain was a massive ovular shaped cave. Hive biomatter riddled the area along with dead Fallen and Hive symbols. From the expression on Winter's face, it was clear that none of this was here when she entered to gather intel. As they entered the dark cave, the only light available had come from Baris and the blue light from the skinny paths of some kind of liquid found on Venus.

"Do you hear that?" Amalia's Ghost activated his light. She looked around and aimed her gun.

"It's just a waterfall, Amalia." Winter explained.

"Why would the Hive need a waterfall? Do they even drink water?" Vossius asked.

"From what I can guess the Hive need to still feed the mutated alitars down here, so they made a waterfall to get them the water they need."

Amalia shivered. She was not looking forward to seeing a mutated alitar. They were ugly enough without any mutations, so she could only imagine what they looked like. They continued walking until they reached a pit. The waterfall was much louder and some light could be seen from above. Loud wailing could be heard from below.

"This way." Winter started climbing down. The rest of the team waited for her to reach a good distance before following. With all their attention on Winter they hadn't noticed the creeping zombie Fallen limping behind them. Amalia heard a loud crackling noise behind her and she readied her gun only to see a limping Fallen with a fat belly fall and begin vomiting a green fluid. She stepped back and bumped into Vossius.

"What the hell?" Vossius said as he noticed the reanimated horde behind them. He started firing at them. Everyone turned around to see the threat and started helping.

Lias got on one knee and fired low at the Fallen kneecaps as they limped towards them. He looked up at Kyer when he felt him put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll start heading down!" Kyer rushed by and started climbing down leaving only four of them to fight.

"Amalia! You're next to go down!" Vossius commanded. She slowly backed up as she shot. When she felt ready, the Hunteress followed behind Kyer. "Lias, Eralis, then me!"

The horde of Fallen grew as time passed. Vossius crackled with Arc energy and started smashing through them. Eralis unleashed a chain of Arc from his fingertips, cutting the zombies down and creating more space. They fought until for about ten minutes until Lias finally decided to start heading down. Eralis eventually came next, rather then climb down he just jumped down and glided. Vossius started to get overwhelmed by the Fallen and copied Eralis' method.

* * *

Winter finished climbing to a point and dropped onto a massive pathway. From the looks of it, the path went on for miles both forward and behind. She looked around and noticed a smaller pathway in the wall next to her. "Was this here before?" She whispered. Kyer dropped down behind silently. When she turned, Winter couldn't help but jump in fear. "Kyer!"

"Where are we?"

"This is where I saw the alitars." She said, her eyes darted up when Amalia dropped down. "What's happening up there?"

"Some gross Fallen were following us."

"I should have guessed." Winter mumbled. "Is everyone-"

Lias crashed next to Amalia, then Eralis and Vossius. Winter mouthed the words she wanted to say. "We… should get… going." Lias placed his hands on his knees.

"Baris, scan for an-" A mutated alitar cut Winter off with its disgusting wail. The alitar stood a few meters away, breathing heavily through two rotted nostrils where the snout used to be. Its grey, cracked tongue dragged on the ground licking up dust. The teeth that were once hidden in its snout were gone except the ones in the back. The alitar's eyes glowed green and it's back released a murky fluid.

Everyone froze. "Winnie?" Lias whispered. "What do we do?"

Her eyes darted left then right. _There's another path on our right. _"See that path Lias?" He nodded. "Three of us will go there. The others will go here." She spoke in a very stiff manner. She started counting with her hand.

Three.

Two.

"One!"

The Guardians split into two groups: Winter, Vossius, and Amalia squeezed into the one path. Lias, Kyer, and Eralis in the other.

Amalia shrieked as the alitar smashed its deformed head against the small path. "Can it get in?"

"I don't plan on finding out!" Winter moved carefully through the cramped space. The place they were in led to another massive path. This time a corrupted alitar lumbered, in chains, behind five blue Acolytes and a Knight with gold stripes on its armor. The Knight started to bark orders at its soldiers. A magical Hive rune appeared under the alitar and held it down.

"Get the Acolytes! I'll take care of the Knight!" Vossius charged in.

Winter started firing at two Acolytes while Amalia ran in to dispatch her targets quickly. The Warlock watched as the short Hunteress kicked an Acolyte into two others. Winter took advantage and tossed a Solar bomb at them, melting them instantly. When they died small blue orbs fell onto the ground. She ran over to it and grabbed one. The orb popped and flowed up her arm.

"_What_ _is_ _this_?" She looked to see Amalia had gathered two orbs.

"Can you two stop worrying about-" Vossius was knocked to the ground by the Knight. "Help me!"

Amalia rushed in and gave the Knight a kick to the face.

"How did you manage to hurt it?"

Winter ran past him. "It must be the orbs!" She hit the Knight with a blast of Solar energy. He watched as Amalia was caught and thrown back by the burning Knight.

Vossius took his weapon and fired at an Acolyte, when it died an orb dropped, but before he could grab it Amalia shouted near him: "Heads up!" He didn't have time to react as she jumped up on his shoulders and boosted off into the air. Amalia jumped again and pulled her knife from its sheath. When she reached peak height, she rotated her body upside down and aimed at the Knight then with another distortion of gravity flung herself down towards him knife first. In a flash of Arc energy, Amalia came down on the Knight and skewered its chest. The Knight fell onto its knees and its body began crumbling. A golden orb broke free.

"Well if I can't have the blue one then I'll just take this one!" Vossius grabbed it and smashed it in his hand. The light covered his body. "Huh?" His head snapped to Winter.

"What?"

"Did you say something?"

They looked at each other for a moment when Vossius heard it again. "_Harness my Light._" Vossius felt compelled to hold his hands a good distance apart. A massive orb of Light formed in between them. Winter gasped in awe. The alitar roared and recoiled. A burning sensation engulfed his palms and in a hurry he chucked it at the alitar.

The Light exploded on the alitar and it began wailing in pain. It rose on its hind legs and its scales began deteriorating. Amalia was the first to notice and started firing at the exposed muscle. Winter and Vossius did the same soon after. Bile poured out of its disfigured mouth.

"Ghost! Rocket!" Amalia's Ghost dropped a rocket launcher in front of her. She pulled it up on her shoulder and fired. The blast caused an explosion of gore to cover the team. Whatever was left of the alitar's insides began spilling out on the ground.

"Amalia!" Winter shouted angrily. "Really?"

She looked at the Warlock who was covered in most of the gore. Amalia's eyes widened as Winter retched on the floor.

"_Winnie? Are you there?_"

"Lias!" Winter wiped the vomit from her mouth. "What's your situation?"

"_We just killed an alitar. It's pretty simple too_." Lias went to explain.

"Yeah, we figured it out." Vossius cut him off.

"Anyway," Winter started, "we should meet up and find the exit."

"_Let's meet back where we split._"

Winter slung her weapon to her side and entered the tight space again with her team. As they got closer Winter remembered the monster that had been waiting. When she reached the end of the path, Winter sprinted out and immediately jumped into action. The alitar had been locked down by a Knight and its Acolytes. With their attention on the beast Amalia took the chance to kill two Acolytes. Winter took a blue orb and threw a Solar bomb at the Hive Knight. Vossius grabbed a blue orb and unloaded his gun into its face.

The Knight fell quickly and the golden orb was revealed to them. Vossius went to grab it, but the light sent out a wave of energy knocking him back. The other two stood unaffected by the blast. Amalia in turn grabbed the orb and threw it at the beast. They repeated their attack on the alitar again, although this time the team had to shoot at an awkward angle to kill it.

Winter let her weapon go. "If I'm piecing this together correctly: Only one of us can grab the gold orb once and no more times after."

"You should also add that the orbs are the lost Light of Guardians." Amalia chimed in.

"Hm." Winter put a hand under her chin and furrowed her eyebrows. "Why would they infuse Light into their soldiers if that's the one thing they are trying to destroy?"

_What are you planning Telleth'uul? _She thought.

"We're here!" Kyer waved at the team as he squeezed out of the path. "Did you miss us?"

Winter summoned Baris and had her do an outward scan of the area they were in. Baris pulsed wildly as she marked down branching paths, following them to lower sections of the cavern. She pulled up a holographic map of the cave. "We are here right now." Six blips appeared on the map. "We need to go east from this location and down into this area. From what I could scan there appears to be a central chamber at the lowest point of this cave systems. Telleth'uul is most likely there. This map isn't a very reliable map the lower we go, but until then this is what we'll have to work with."

"Prepare to scan for more accurate data when we get lower." Winter ordered.

"Of course."

With that the team began moving east from their location. They encountered patrols of Hive guards wandering around, alitars with Wizards on their flank. The team dispatched them quickly and moved on. The maze of paths ended when they came to a massive cage door on the ground. Hive trotted about entering and exiting the door through a lift. Guards stood ready to attack intruders. The team hid behind a formation of rocks high above the pit.

"We'll need to get inside without being spotted." Winter said.

"Yeah." Whispered Vossius.

"I have an idea on getting in." The freckled awoken grinned.

Winter shifted her eyes to Amalia. "What is it?"

"Well, you see how the guards are posted looking away from the pit?" They nodded. "If we each time our jumps correctly, we'll be able to fall right in the center and into the gravity lift which in turn will send us downwards due to our momentum."

They all stared at her like she was insane. "I… I assume it could work, but it seems too dangerous."

"Then what do you propose?" Amalia stood by the edge. Silence. "We'll begin by jumping in pairs. Lias you'll jump with Eralis. Kyer and Vossius. And Winnie, you'll be with me."

She nodded.

* * *

"Alright, Eralis," Lias stretched his legs. "Let's- Woah!" Eralis tackled the big Titan at just the right time and both of them fell through the open gate. The two Acolytes that were coming up both died from the force the two Guardians put on them as they came down. None of the guards seemed to notice.

"You're up you two." Amalia gestured towards the edge.

Vossius grunted and pulled Kyer by his cape. "So you aren't going to-" Vossius lifted him up by his cape and dropped him over the edge then hopped off.

"And now it's our turn." Amalia stood by the edge.

Winter looked over the edge and shuddered. "I hate this."

"Don't tell me you're afraid of heights?" Amalia put both hands on her hips. "You _climbed_ down into this pit and fought _multiple_ monsters. How could you possibly fear heights?"

"I'm more afraid of what'll happen if we don't time it right." Winter looked at Amalia. "Ugh, what did I get myself into?"

"Winnie," Amalia put a hand on her shoulder, "we've got this."

Winter wanted to believe the Hunteress, but found it extremely hard to. Amalia held her hand out and Winter took it. She took a deep breath and they both jumped as soon as the doors opened.

* * *

Down by the gravity lift, the other Guardians fought Hive. Winter jumped into the fight by throwing a healing orb at Eralis. Amalia pulled her knife out and charged in holding herself low to the ground.

The fight didn't last long. The Hive were all defeated and the team could finally move deep into the cave. The raid team walked down a path into a new chamber. The place was built in a circular shape with Hive platforms moving around and sacs, with unidentified things inside, hanging from the ceiling and platforms. The Guardians jumped down onto a floating platform the Hive used to move around the chamber.

"Is there a way to change this platform's course?" Vossius asked his Ghost. The Ghost scanned the platform, but found no way to manipulate it. "Guess not."

The team waited for the platform to get near another one and jumped on. They fought some Hive on the platform and repeated this pattern for a while. They jumped onto a platform which abruptly changed course, knocking them all over. It was leading them to a massive platform in the center of the whole chamber. The platform stopped right before hitting the bigger one. The team fell over again.

"Why'd it do that?" Kyer jumped to the bigger platform.

"How the hell should we know?" Vossius growled. "Don't go jumping on stuff we don't understand."

Kyer looked around. "It's a platform, what's not to understand?" Lias shrugged and hopped over with Eralis. Vossius jumped over and immediately readied his weapon when he heard a whisper. Wind rushed by all six Guardians and, in a dramatic fashion, a familiar Wizard appeared. She had a new look, with tubes pumping around her stomach and arms. They crossed awkwardly around her body. Long robes were thrown raggedly around her shoulders and chest.

She let out a powerful screech and pods smashed down on the ground, releasing zombie Fallen around them. Vossius leaped into action, firing at the tubes in her stomach, while the others fought the zombies. She quickly blocked his bullets with magic and sent out tracking bolts.

"Focus on the Fallen!" He ordered. "Don't let them get close!"

They withered down the Fallen horde and started attacking her. The Wizard's fingers glowed white, she made a symbol with her hand and created a wave of energy out towards them. The blast threw them off of the platform. Kyer recovered in the air and braced for impact with the platform coming up at them. There was a loud -_THUD_\- from the six Guardians.

"Fu-!" Vossius couldn't finish the word as the pain shot through his body. Eralis died and Lias cursed while Winter healed him. She moved over and healed Amalia as well. Eralis' Ghost took an uncomfortable amount of time to revive him.

The platform continued upwards, increasing its speed as it got closer to the top of the chamber.

"We have to jump!" Lias panicked.

Vossius got back on his feet and pulled Kyer up. "Come on, _Boots_!" The Hunter stumbled from the sheer force. Vossius threw him by his arm and followed right behind. As they fell from high above the Wizard, she fired white, wire-like shots of energy at them. A loud -_zip_\- could be heard from the sound of the passing bolts.

"Prepare for impact!" Kyer shifted his weight to turn upright.

Lias let Arc energy course through his body as he fell and readied himself to impact the Wizard herself. When he came into contact with her barrier it shimmered violently. The impact knocked him back and almost off the edge.

"I figured it out!" Winter shouted. "Vossius hit her with Void Light. Kyer: Solar Light! Eralis! Arc!"

Kyer whipped out his knife and set it ablaze. Eralis' fingers crackled violently. The three Guardians rushed her. They all reached a point where they jumped together and slammed their Light into the barrier causing an explosion of white light.

"Shoot her!"

Vossius' Ghost summoned his machine gun while the other five fired at her. The thundering sound of his weapon scared the others, but they kept shooting. The Wizard screeched as she tried to get back and teleported out. Pods followed with her disappearance.

"Don't tell me the bitch is-" The Wizard appeared in a blast of energy. Green soulfire scattered around the area. When they could finally catch a glimpse of her, some of the organic tubes had been ripped apart, her robes were destroyed exposing a mess of tubes coming out of her stomach. Green bile spilled out of the tube sites. Chunks of chitin were missing from her side and soulfire burned in her hand. Three Wizards appeared around her, all praying.

"They're going to heal her!" Winter shouted. "We have to stop it!"

"Fire on the trio!" Vossius commanded. They attacked, but none of their weapons could cut through their Dark magic.

"Damn it!" Kyer panicked. "She's gonna recover!"

Amalia squinted her eyes when she noticed something about the Wizards. _The symbol on my sniper!_ She pulled her gun up from its sling and fired at the Wizards. The bullets ripped through their barriers and killed them. The symbol on the sniper changed.

"Nice job, Amalia!" Lias praised her.

The Wizard screeched in anger and tried teleporting away, but Vossius punched the Wizard with Void energy and backed off.

Winter aimed her palm at the Wizard from afar and fired a bolt of fire. Eralis tore through time and space and blinked above the Wizard. He unleashed a massive wave of Arc energy over her. The Wizard's barrier exploded. She slammed down on the ground. They all fired at the Wizard with heavy weapons, now. The Wizard was being turned into a pulpy mess of chitin and internal fluids as they unloaded into her. She fell again.

The Wizard screamed and brought her hand up. More Wizards appeared and a bright light glowed on her palm. The praying Wizards started to chant loudly.

"What is that?" Kyer asked quietly. "Winnie?"

"Amalia shoot the Wizards agai-"

The light shot up into the air. They watched as it hit its peak and started to come down.

"Winter!" Lias grabbed her shoulder.

Winter ran to Vossius and placed a glowing hand on his back. "I'm strengthening your Light! Create a Void barrier!"

Void energy built up in his hands. Vossius stomped on the ground with his heavy boot and threw his arms outward creating a massive dome around them. He created it just as the projectile hit the platform. The blast shook the platform and blinded them.

When the light faded, everything around them was dead. The Wizard's body lay on the ground. Contorted in a violent manner.

Vossius dropped the bubble shield and dropped to one knee. He breathed heavily and let his head dangle.

"Can't believe she killed herself." Amalia holstered her hand cannon and walked towards the dead Wizard. Eralis stood at her side. He tapped the dead Wizard curiously with his foot.

"I don't think you two should be so close to a dead Hive Wizard." Lias said warily. "I don't trust it." He looked at Winter as if he were looking for her approval in his statement.

"I'm with Lias on this one. The Hive are too unpredictable for any-"

The Wizard's body started convulsing. Her hand swiped at Amalia and Eralis. They jumped away in time.

"I knew it!" Lias grabbed his gun off his back.

The Wizard's hand snapped upwards and a soulfire symbol appeared above it. Amalia looked at her sniper and noticed the symbol matched it. She held it up and fired a round at her hand. The chitin exploded off her hand like a shell, revealing a thick green aura that matched the shape of her hand.

Suddenly they could hear roars from above their heads. Knights and Acolytes dropped down at fast speeds. Platforms moved in to connect to the main platform.

"Scatter!" Vossius and Kyer took off towards the left. Amalia and Eralis went straight ahead. Winter and Lias both ran towards the right of the platform.

Lias came to the edge and saw a platform coming up. "We need to jump, Winnie!"

"What?" He hoisted her up into his arms and jumped. The two landed on a different platform with multiple Acolytes.

Amalia and Eralis both unleashed Arc attacks on their new opponents. "We need to move, Eralis!" Amalia jumped towards the edge after throwing a wave of Arc energy. "And that's our way off!" She pointed at a platform moving up and around the main one.

Eralis nodded and jumped off the platform with no warning. Amalia crouched and boosted herself up and away. The two landed on the platform with ease.

Kyer and Vossius fought three Knights on a seperate platform. They moved around to keep themselves from being overwhelmed. Kyer pulled out a hand cannon and brought it into the air. The weapon caught fire and he shot three times into a Knight's back. He aimed it and fired three more times at another Knight. Vossius shoulder bashed the last Knight off the platform.

"Nice work." Vossius said.

"Tha- Woah!" Kyer ran up to a dusted Knight's boomer. It carried the symbol the Wizard had glowing above her hand. He picked it up and activated his comm. "Winnie! There's a Hive boomer here with a symbol on it! Do you think it'll have a similar effect like Amalia's sniper?"

Winter finished off an Acolyte and grabbed hold of its shredder. "This has a symbol too. Not the same, though. Maybe it will. Kyer, I need you to shoot the Wizard with your gun, see what it does."

Kyer hoisted the boomer up in his arms and aimed at the Wizard's symbol. "There's too many Hive on the main platform for me to get a clear shot!"

"Don't worry, we'll handle it!" Vossius said. "Kyer, Amalia, and Winnie: you three stay on the platforms and be prepared to shoot at any more symbols. Eralis and Lias, let's clear it for them."

Amalia crouched on one knee with her sniper ready. Winter aimed the shredder at the Wizard, steadily. Kyer let the boomer rest on the ground.

The other three Guardians jumped off their platforms and smashed down into the Hive with their Light. The three took hits, but continued to fight as they dropped Hive all around them. When enough were dead, Kyer lifted the heavy weapon up and fired. The shot was an unusual green color and shattered on impact. The Wizard's chitin eroded and more of her aura form was exposed.

The Wizard's chest convulsed upwards and another symbol appeared above her chest. All three weapon wielders looked back at their guns. Winter's shredder matched the symbol and she fired multiple infectious shots. The weapon shook violently as she fired. The Wizard's chest burst open. The aura form under the chitin ripped out of her original form.

The ethereal form began floating up in the air. It chanted a song weakening the three Guardians on the main platform. Lias dropped on one knee. Vossius' weapon weighed him down and he fell. Eralis followed.

"We have to help them!" Amalia was about to jump on the platform.

"Wait!" Winter shouted. "Do you see that? There are Wizard's above us! Siphoning their Light! Amalia, kill them."

"On it!" She aimed upwards and fired at the three targets. "I got one, but the other two have some kind of barrier."

Kyer brought his boomer to bear and shot at a Wizard about to siphon Amalia's Light. "Winnie! Watch out above you!"

Winter turned in time to see a Wizard's head explode. "Thanks!" She aimed her shredder up and unloaded into the corresponding Wizard. Lias was released from his hold. Kyer did the same, releasing Eralis from the magic. The Wizard screamed and tried grabbing Eralis. Amalia sniped its hand. The hand dissipated.

Winter and Kyer aimed their weapons and fired at the Wizard. They shot at the injured arm. It screeched and thrashed violently at the three on the main platform. It summoned more reinforcements, including an alitar.

Vossius smashed an Acolyte's head and picked its shredder up. The weapon glowed green and looked ready to kill the Wizard. He lifted off of the ground and fired at its head at close range. The Wizard's face began to dissipate. It backed off, but was met with a sniper shot from Amalia. Winter threw healing orbs at the team to keep them alive while they grabbed their own weapons to kill the Wizard.

Lias held a boomer in his hand and blasted the Wizard on its side. More of her body dissipated.

"Get off the platform!" Eralis called out. "Alitar incoming!"

An alitar dropped from the sky and all three Guardians jumped off of the platform to land with their other companions. Eralis and Vossius landed on Winter's platform as it passed by. Lias and Kyer stood on one together. Amalia was alone.

"How are we supposed to take the alitar down?" Amalia asked thought comms. "We don't have any lost Light to use!"

"Then we ignore it!" Vossius shouted. "She's our target, not the alitar."

"Sounds like a challenge! I like it!" Kyer joked over the comms earning a groan from Winter and Amalia.

"Quit joking around and fire at her!" Vossius ordered. "Eralis distract the alitar."

Moving quietly, Eralis jumped off the platform with Arc Light coursing through his body. He landed on the alitar and conducted a huge amount of Arc energy into its head. The alitar roared and tried shaking him off. Eralis gripped its head and forced it to move away from the center. When Kyer hit the Wizards hand, Eralis was given the chance to jump away and blink backwards onto Amalia's platform.

With the damage Kyer did to the Wizard, she staggered and fell. A loud screech erupted from her mouth and a sickly green Hive portal opened up behind her. It began violently tearing her apart and pulling her in entirely.

"She's getting away!" Amalia called out. "We-"

A blast of light shot out of the portal. It came to a halt at the center platform and exploded. The six Guardians were now being pushed off the platforms by Hive magic. Winter dropped her weapon and grabbed Vossius' shoulder pad for support, she didn't realize the Titan was sliding back. Amalia had dropped to the floor and stabbed an Arc filled knife into the ground. Eralis had fallen off the platform. Lias and Kyer held onto the edge of their own platform.

"I'm not dying! Not here!" Vossius roared angrily. A loud noise rang above them. Winter looked up to see the Wizard, restored to her original form, above them. All she could do was gasp as the Wizard blasted them off the platform.

"Winter!" Amalia screamed in fear. She looked to see none of the other Guardians were around. The Wizard teleported in front of her and grabbed her wrist. "No!" The Hunteress was tossed off the platform into the depths of the chamber.


End file.
